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The financial challenges facing hospitals and health systems—from the One Big Beautiful Bill’s looming impacts to difficult operating conditions—are also keeping insurers up at night.

By effectively putting strategy into action, hospitals and healthcare systems can thrive amid today’s financial and operational challenges and position themselves to confront the looming threats that are just around the corner.

Forward-looking healthcare systems aren’t waiting for conditions to stabilize. They are moving deliberately toward strategic partnerships that position them for long-term relevance and resilience.

The challenges that hospitals and health systems currently face are amplifying this complexity, from uncertainty about potential changes to federal healthcare policy—including Medicaid and NIH funding cuts and tariffs—inflation, and ongoing workforce challenges.

The hospital and health system leaders we work with are extremely concerned about the financial impact their organizations may experience from potentially significant Medicaid policy changes, following the recent passage of a budget resolution by the U.S. House of Representatives.

A conversation with Rich Liekweg, CEO of BJC Health System in Missouri, and Nick Barto, president of BJC Health System

It has been an incredibly busy and exciting year for our Strategy & Business Transformation practice at Kaufman Hall. In 2024, we observed hospitals and health systems take steps to reinvigorate their strategic efforts amid a stabilizing, but still challenging, outlook.

Health system leaders focused on the day-to-day needs of their organization can sometimes lose sight of key developments in other sectors of healthcare. But in an interconnected healthcare ecosystem, understanding the trendlines their payer counterparts are facing is an essential task.

Listen to Kaufman Hall and Sg2 experts as they co-present highlights from recent annual research data regarding the evolving Healthcare Consumer.

For more than a decade, hospitals, payers, and other healthcare stakeholders have experimented with moving healthcare payment from fee-for-service, volume-based contracts to arrangements that reward providers for the value of the care they provide.